10 Ridiculously Ambitious Video Games That Failed Horribly

This list takes a look at 10 ridiculously ambitious games that failed horribly. Whether they were masterpieces too ahead of their time to succeed commercially, or just average games that never came close to their ambition, each of these entries were felled by the developers’ lofty ambitions.

[thorstein]

Multimillion dollar sales, good review scores, plus warm reception by players equals FAIL?

Voted down.

[pompombrum]

Warm player reception at first, not so much now. All the people I played with at launch have quit save two who log on once a week to do the nightfall. Six months ago, if there was a poll asking what gamers thought would likely be GOTY, Destiny would have hands down been top of the list. If they done a poll now, I'd honestly be surprised if it made top 5.

That's not to say it's a bad game because it's far from it but lets be honest, it isn't the game many of us were hyped up to believe.

[wsoutlaw87]

I wouldnt really call it ambitious just a next gen borderlands with pvp. It would be more ambitious if they included more but as you were saying, people are out of stuff to do. Its a great game, just very lacking.

[Palitera]

When they are swimming in rivers of money, do you really think they care about players' satisfaction? Really?

[IGiveHugs2NakedWomen]

Destiny didn't fail.

Beyond Two Souls didn't fail.

Shenmue didn't fail.

Tom Butler, YOU FAIL.

[GameSpawn]

Compared to Heavy Rain, Beyond Two Souls did fail.
http://www.joystiq.com/2013...

I'd like to think that Heavy Rain's success bankrolled Beyond Two Souls so that it didn't have to be as successful.

However on its own the game did fairly well. I enjoyed it, though the story felt lacking a little bit.

[thorstein]

Using that logic, Call of Duty MW2 failed because Black Ops sold more...

[GameSpawn]

I did say that on its own Beyond Two Souls did well.

It cannot be argued however that Heavy Rain was the more successful of the two since Heavy Rain had a stupidly low development cost compared to the money it raked in.

Very Low Investment + Very High Return = Highly Successful

Beyond had a higher cost solely because of two big name actors being attached to the game. Trust me when I say that Page and Defoe did not come cheap -- their salaries for the production were probably a good percentage of the game's development cost (who knows if they tried to get percentage too <-- this is when actors receive of percentage of continued revenue from future releases of what they are in instead of one lump sum).

[Rimeskeem]

They put shenmue on the list.

By definition this is wrong.

[Pozzle]

They didn't say Shenmue's failed because it's a bad game though. It failed because its production costs were so high that the game would have had to be purchased twice by every Dreamcast owner in order for Sega to make a profit.

[caseh]

Yu Suzuki was almost lynched as a result, it's part of the reason he is no longer at Sega.

[Rimeskeem]

Well it didn't not fail horribly

[zodiac909]

How did destiny fail, if 2 months after launch it has 10 million registered users?? Seems a bit like a success regardless of you thinking the game is trash..

[captainexplosion]

Destiny failed because it was supposed to be incredibly ambitious and huge. It was about as far from those two things as possible. It was also supposed to be a major GOTY contender and break sales records.

[BiggerBoss]

It did break sales records though. Biggest launch for a new IP ever.

I feel if Bungie makes all the right moves (hire new writers/creative talent, ditch last gen, etc.) then Destiny 2 could be a major improvement

[kodiak404_]

What is out right now is the base for a game that's meant to last. There's going to more raids, more strikes, more gear, more options, and a ton of more stuff. The game broke sales record, the game has one of the best and friendliest communities I've experienced in years of gaming, and the games just fun. I don't know how anybody can say it failed on any qualitative basis except for their own delusional sense of what it 'should' have been.

[GameSpawn]

There is also this misconception that the $500M Bungie had budgeted was for Destiny alone...it was for the Destiny franchise (aka. 3-4 games, content, and advertising as well as startup funds as an independent developer).

I would love to see Bungie's official financial report showing how much they have truly spent on making the first game so far (not the future budget of the franchise) as I bet it was a tenth of the $500M planned for the entire series.

[memots]

Wow people love to hate everything now. The game just came out made it's money back in a few days. Millions of people registered and playing yet people are calling this fail.., just wow

[Tedakin]

People say Destiny didn't fail because it sold a lot. Yes, commercially it was huge, but it failed in what it promised and in its own ambition. I know no one still playing it. Most people I know have sold it. And yes, I knew a lot people who were in to it at the start. That's hardly what the intention and the ambition was. It was predicted to be Game of the Year and to change FPS forever. I can't tell you how many times I heard "When Destiny comes out, Titanfall, Halo, COD... all dead." Well....

[JeffGUNZ]

That's the thing, our samples are too small. I still see most of my friends list playing Destiny. Sure, a few jumped to COD for a few days but were back to Destiny. The game is addictive and fun. I still don't get the backlash, it's like people who bought this game completely erased the Alpha and Beta from their minds. It's basically an expanded version of those two. What else were people really expecting after participating in the beta?

[jambola]

I think the fact that we see so many whatculture articles around here really shows how much time and effort is put into them.

[arbitor365]

destiny may have sold well, but if you look at the game with a critical eye and compare it to games of the same genre, it is undoubtedly a failure. it fails to deliver true depth, a world worth being invested in, and (importantly) lengthy content. instead it pads things out with mindless grinding.

and let me say this. any game whose final boss is a RECOLOR of a previous boss deserved to be ridiculed.

[JeffGUNZ]

ugh. It's not a FAILURE. Like most things, it does lack in some areas; story being the main one, but EXCELS in a lot of areas; Shooting mechanics. This game is a victim to overhype by media and gamers. People made this game like the next coming and were disappointed it didn't offer them $500 worth of content in a $60 price point.

[Bloodjunkie]

I don't need to read this. Only need to read the caption and see the picture to know that this is clickbait.

[Picnic]

Beyond: Two Souls is a great experience though in terms of seeing the world through the eyes of a young girl.

It's definitely not the story classic that Heavy Rain is - Beyond Two Souls is far too all over the place with its settings for that (what was the point of the country bit?) and offers less choice than the earlier game. The game even plays itself at times (it's near impossible to die) and if Beyond intended to scare with its huge special effects that doesn't come off.

It's still a must play though because of Ellen Page playing it so well- the most rounded character in any videogame. Treat Beyond Two Souls as a hand holding linear ghost train of a game with overblown, deceitful, attempts at action and you'll enjoy it. Compare it to Heavy Rain's genuine action though and you'll find it lacking.
Despite this, Beyond actually manages to have a few parts that are even scarier than the scariest parts of Heavy Rain.

[VideoGameGuy]

People just want attention, and unfortunately they are getting it by bashing on destiny.

[ShaunCameron]

Where's Resident Evil 6?

[Picnic]

The vote might have got split between that and RE5. From what I've seen of RE6, it might have not got the tone right all the time but at least it tried to look like a classic Resident Evil game instead of being a poor man's RE4 like RE5.